New Japan Pro-Wrestling is a promotion that has had a multitude of championships, which luckily they tend to treat fairly well when it comes to crowning a champion. Many fans remember the amazing reigns of Kazuchika Okada holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship or have heard about the legendary reigns of Antonio Inoki. But New Japan doesn't always have a perfect track record with their belts. Some wrestlers, mostly during what is called the Inoki-ism era, provided some less than stellular reigns with New Japan gold.
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Fans might be able to recall when Brock Lesnar left the WWE and decided to don some red tights and take his talent to Japan. He quickly won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and would have a quite terrible reign with the strap. Let's look at a few wrestlers who elevated the status of their title, and some that tarnished its history.
10 Bad: British Invasion, IWGP Tag Team
TNA's British Invasion didn't start in the most fashionable way. The team would beat former champions Team 3D in a tables match on Impact, a match not sanctioned by NJPW. New Japan wouldn't even decide to actually recognize the change until about a month later.
The belts would change hands twice in TNA before going back to New Japan full-time. Team 3D would regain the titles at Bound for Glory, ending the British Invasion's time with the belts at 89 days.
9 Good: Bad Intentions, IWGP Tag Team
Giant Bernard, or Albert/Tensai in the WWE, and Karl Anderson would only have a single reign with the titles but would do wonders for them. The duo would win the belts in a three-way match against No Limit, Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi, and Seigigun, Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata.
Anderson and Bernard would hold the championships for 564 days amounting to a total of 10 defenses. During this reign, they would also capture Pro Wrestling Noah's tag titles from Takuma Sano and Yoshihiro Takayama.
8 Bad: Karl Anderson, NEVER Openweight
Moving onto another Karl Anderson title reign, this time with the NEVER Openweight Championship. Anderson would win the title by beating Tama Tonga at Dominion in 2022 after returning to New Japan after his tenure with the WWE. Anderson would have two defenses with the belt before dropping it back to Tonga at Wrestle Kingdom 17.
Anderson's time with the belt would have been fairly standard if it wasn't for the fact he started working with WWE and signed a contract with them again while holding the title. He wouldn't be able to make New Japan shows since he was busy in the U.S. before WWE luckily let Anderson work the match at Wrestle Kingdom.
7 Good: Tomohiro Ishii, NEVER Openweight
Like many championships, when you look at them, you might see a particular champion. Tomohiro Ishii is the name most synonymous with the NEVER Openweight Championship. The "Stone Pitbull" has held the belt a record-setting six times.
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Ishii was able to appear on AEW television with the belt to bring more eyes to it. During his first reign, he would hold the belt for a total of 138 days and succeed in four title defenses. Ishii has become the man that when NJPW doesn't know what to do with the belt, they call in the pit bull.
6 Bad: Masayuki Naruse, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship has been relatively unscathed from any "bad" title reigns, the worst one to find would have to be Masayuki Naruse's reign in 2001. Despite being an amazing wrestler, he just didn't have the belt for a substantial time or do anything with it.
He held it for an alright 80 days with only one defense. Other champions around his reign were holding it for much longer for an average of 158 days. While Naruse was the shortest reign with the belt, he also had only one defense, while people who did have shorter reigns still squeaked out more defenses.
5 Good: Jushin Liger, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight
The opposite side of the spectrum for this belt would be with Jushin Thunder Liger who held the belt a record-setting eleven times. Liger would have great tenures throughout his career and amount to at least one defense every reign, minus his fourth reign.
Liger would also have an amazing 403 days reign with the belt, in which he defended it eight times before losing to Koji Kanemoto in 1999. Despite never holding it again after 2000, he would still be integral to the Jr, Heavyweight division until his retirement.
4 Bad: EVIL, IWGP Intercontinental
The majority of New Japan fans would consider EVIL's win of the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships quite pointless. Some have claimed he is the worst Heavyweight Champion the company has had, some say there are much worse.
One record he can hold though is the shorter tenure of the Intercontinental Championship, he was the worst. Following behind much greater champions like Shinsuke Nakamura and Tetsuya Naito, EVIL would have one of the shortest reigns with the belt and a single defense before it was retired.
3 Good: Shinsuke Nakamura, IWGP Intercontinental
Much like Ishii with the NEVER Openweight and Liger with the Junior Heavyweight, Shinsuke Nakamura is the face of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. He set the record for most reigns at five before Tetsuya Naito would pass him with six.
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His most dominant reign would be his first where he held the title for 313 days and had eight title defenses. During Nakamura's reigns, he would also get the championship to the main event of Wrestle Kingdom for the first and only time (not counting when it was combined with the Heavyweight title)
2 Bad: Bob Sapp, IWGP Heavyweight
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Bob Sapp would be the face of the Inoki-ism era of New Japan. He was more known for his time as a kickboxer and MMA fighter but would try his hand at professional wrestling in the early 2000s. Sapp started by training under WCW in 2001 before their closure and debuting with NJPW in 2004.
He would quickly win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and be the first and only African-American Heavyweight Champion. Sapp would have a single defense against a young Shinsuke Nakamura before vacating the belt after losing a K-1 fight to Kazuyuki Fujita.
1 Good: Kazuchika Okada, IWGP Heavyweight
Without a doubt, the best champion for any championship produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling is Kazuchika Okada. Okada held the Heavyweight title five times for a combined total of 1790 days. He also holds the record for most defenses at a total of 30.
His 2016-2018 reign alone puts him at the top. He held the belt for 720 days with 12 defenses in total before losing to Kenny Omega in one of New Japan's greatest matches at Dominion 2018. Okada would also have the first-ever 6-star Meltzer match during this reign.
